Breakfast recipes

For a long time I’ve thought how much I’d like to cook my way through ever recipe in a cookbook and somehow this year I’m being a bit more organised and might accomplish this dream. Lunch finds me eating healthly and working my way through Harry Eastwood’s – A Salad for All Seasons. And then I thought why not try some new ideas for breakfast and cook through a brunch book.

The great thing about breakfast is you can eat it at any meal of the day, so last night for supper I tried Coddled Eggs in a Bread Basket (see recipe below)

For each serving butter a ramekin/muffin mould. Then take a medium slice of white bread, remove the crusts, then roll it out with a rolling pin to flatten and lengthen before cutting in half to form two rectangles, lastly brush with melted butter or oil. Place the bread in the mould, so the two pieces form a cross and then carefully break an egg into the basket. Season well and cover with double cream. Place the mould on a baking tray and put into a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Check the egg is done to your liking and before carefully turning out, then serve with bacon and perhaps some ketchup on the side.

Banana and Expresso Smoothie

I tried these on a recent trip to Cape Town and can’t understand why we haven’t been serving them for years. Breakfast in a glass and what a great way to wake up.

Whizz together a banana, half a cup of milk, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a shot of expresso and there you have it!

Potato Cakes

This is in fact a recipe from my mother. They work so well with bacon, the saltiness of the meat bringing out the flavour of the potato cake.

An amount of leftover mashed potato, 1/2 the potato volume self raising flour, an egg. Stir this mixture together, the flour is to help lighten the potato mixture and along with the egg help it to adhear together.

Mix the ingredients together with a wooden spoon, season well and add chives or parsley too if you like. Heat oil in a frying pan and take a dessertspoon of the mixture, drop it into the hot oil and press down to flatten so it can cook evenly on each side. Flip over once they are coloured on one side – you can do several of these at a time.

Serve with bacon and eggs.

Mumbles Eggs

Peter and I had Mumbles Eggs for brunch at the weekend. They weren’t really what I’d want to eat for breakfast and would work better when you need to russle up a quick supper. Anyway here’s the recipe and it’s another one ticked off the list in eating my way through Hugo Woolley’s book – Breakfast.

For each person you need a halved toasted and buttered English muffin, upon which you spread some Gentleman’s Relish and top with some freshly made scrambled egg.

Overall it’s reminiscant of the ‘savoury’ Scotch Woodcock.

Chocolate Pots

Well I’m a girl that can eat chocolate at most times of the day but hadn’t started a habit of eating it at breakfast, until Peter and I spent a night at The Dartmoor Inn and were served these tasty treats for breakfast. Fortunately this recipe was printed out on cards and so I grabbed one and now wonder if I should be making this for our guests

Empty 400ml/14 oz whipping cream into a pan and add a vanilla pod, heat and when bubbles form around the edge put aside to infuse and remove the pod after 10 minutes.

Put 5 oz of broken chocolate pieces into a heat-proof bowl and place over simmering water until melted, then beat 6 egg yolks into the mixture, continue cooking for 5 minutes whisking all the time, then add 2 oz caster sugar and stir until it disolves.

Slowly add the cream and continue whisking, it should now coat the back of a spoon.

Poor the mixture into small pots and chill for 5-6 hours until set.

Pancakes with citrus fruits

This is a real winner, not from Hugo Woolley’s Book but an adaptation of a Katie Quinn Davies recipe.

Don’t be put off by my photograph, the one in the background is in the book I took it from.

In short peel 2 pink grapefruit and 4 oranges, then slice out the segments and put them with all the collected juice into a pan with a tablespoon of sugar. Cook the fruit for about 3 minutes, then remove and leave the syrup to thicken with another tablespoon of sugar and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. Serve with pancakes and natural yoghurt for breakfast – I ate them as a pudding which worked equally well.

10th March 2014 – Eggs Benedict

I make this so often for our guests and in my opinion its one of the biggest treats you can eat for breakfast. I usually make them by splitting and and toasting muffins and then buttering each half; top them with ham a poached egg and cover with warm hollindaise. For vegetairans I offer Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon or spinach replacing the ham.

What was different yesterday was I replaced the ham with freshly cooked bacon and it was delicious. I’d always thought it would be too greasy but the differing textures introduced to the dish by the crisp bacon was so good. I’ll have to offer guests a choice of serving it with bacon too now.

Banana and Peanut Butter Toasted Sandwiches,

Don’t worry I’m not about to start serving these but again they are in Hugo Woolley’s book. Peter and I had them for lunch one day before going off on one of our rare weekends away, one of those moments when there’s little in the fridge, however a sad banana was in the fruit bowl and there’s usually peanut butter in the store cupboard. Easy as pie to make, mash the banana and spread a little peanut butter onto the bread, make a sandwich of the two and put them into whatever impliment you use for toasting sandwiches. For me it was too cloyie and would benefit enormously from being accomanpied by a good handful of dressed watercress. That said I can think of many teenages who would love this type of toastie for breakfast.

French bread slices with a savoury topping

I saw these at a wonderful local cafe, Mes Amis in Beckington. I go there with girlfriends about once a month and always find something new and delicious that the own Elaine has thought up. This particular dish came about when Elaine found that she had too much bread left over each day – she now has to order extra bread each day as these are so popular.

Slice a bread baton in half horizontally and cover with a small amount of belchamel sauce, top with previously sauted mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and grated cheese; pop under the grill before serving topped with crispy slices of bacon. Now don’t you just want this for brunch on Saturday, I’d be happy to make it if you come to stay.

Poached apricots with vanilla and Cardimon

This was a real winner this morning (Wednesday 15th July) and it couldn’t be easier to make. In a pan heat 1 cup of water with 1/4 cup of honey until the honey has melted, then add the seeds from 1/2 a vanilla pod and 6 crushed cardimon pods along with 6 apricots and poach for 2 minutes each side. Remove the apricots into a dish and then reduce the sauce, once that’s at a suitable consistency then leave to cool before pouring over the apricots. Chill until ready to serve with Greek yogurt.